Day 21: See Amid The Winter’s Snow

This carol is another of the many musical gifts given to Miss Mussel by the Manchester Cathedral but rather than dial up yet another Anglican church choir video, today we’re scaling down to a more personal level. Carols are so well loved because they are communal. Generally speaking, everyone knows the words and people who are usually shy to sing in public find this time of year to be a safe place to join in.

Here’s Three Legs ‘O Man rocking the carol with his autoharp. Miss Mussel managed a glimpse of the joy Bartok, Vaughan Williams and Co must have experienced while making their collections. Just as a smile started to crease her face, The Other and Primitivist bad boys from the Critical Theory Party Poopers Society – ever alert to the danger of uncomplicated pleasure – arrived to rain on her parade. Decisively and with gleeful abandon. Jerks.

This version proved irresistible in beauty-in-mundanity kind of way. It is a scene that will play out thousands of times throughout England and North America this Christmas season (are carols a big deal in Europe proper?) and one even the most tentatively skilled musician is familiar with.

Callander, the town from which this brass band hails, forms the northern point of an equilateral triangle connecting with Glasgow and Edinburgh…..because you know you were dying to know. Also, alto horns? Weird.